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niiet tant SAMUEL M. GAINES, OF GLASGOW, KENTUCKY. Letters Patent No. `85,299, (lated December 29, 18655.v

METHOD .OF TEACHING RUDIMENTS OF CHEMISTRY.

The Schedule referred in these Letters Patent and makina part of the lame.

To all whom it may concern Beit known that I, SAMUEL M. Gaines, of Glasgow, in the county of Barren, and State of Kentucky,

have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Art of Teaching the Rudiments of Chemistry; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The great diiliculty which has been hitherto expelienced inteaching the rudimentsl of chemistry, has been the absence of any simple and easy method of illustration, which can be used at every recitation, and by which the attention of a class can be secured, and the elementary truths ofthe science fixed in the memory.

The system introduced by Berzelius, of illustrating chemical compositions and reactions to the eye, by means of symbols and equations, though of great service to the chemist, is liable to the objection of being too abstract for beginners.

The recognition of this fact led to the invention of the chemical chart, by Dr. Youmans, which, though a great help to both teacher' and pupil, is sadly delicient, since, from the nature of the case, his pictures of combinations are iixed, and req`uire no effort on the part of the pupil,'he being, ou this plan, relieved from the trouble of forming the compounds himself, the very thing which, above all others, is necessary to make a lasting impression.

To remedy these defects, and meet the wants of the teacher, I have invented the chemical alphabet herein described, which I have proved, in the school-room, to be far moreeiiicient than any method heretofore used for illustrating this subject.

I represent the atoms, or simple elementary bodies, by cubes, taking hydrogen for the base. These cubes may, of course, be made of any size; but Iprefer to make the cubes representing hydrogen about onefourth of an inch square, and I mark upon each face the figure 1', without any symbol, so that, iu the mind of the pupil, the number alone may always represent hydrogen. i ,Y

.The cubes representing carbon, I make six times larger than those representing hydrogen, toiudicate to the eye that it is six times heavier, and I place the ligure 6 on each face.

Oxygen is represented by cubes made eight times larger than hydrogen, and so on with all the other ele- Nncnts, each being represented by cubes of proper proportions, relatively to hydrogen.

Each cube may have a color representing some property of the matter for which it is used, as, for exam-- ple, oxygen may be red, and carbon, black, Ste.

Forconvenience in teaching, Iprovide a box, the

`bttom of which is divided, by means of strips or cleats, into as many separate apartments las there are different varieties of cubes to be used in teaching.

The lid of this box is provided with suitable stays,

to hold it in a vertical position when open, and its inner i side is provided with a series of shelves, on which,thev cubes may be placed, to represent chemipalcombinarl lIn order, therefore, not to confuse the mindnof the ,student unnecessarily, I limit myself to these fteen elements, which can be readily learned, and, by the aid of which, the pupil is soon able to form any com pound as readily as he can spell any word by the use y of the English alphabet.

To illustrate the method of using this chemical alphabet, one example will sufiice. The pupilswill very soon learn the alphabet so thoroughly that they will instantly recognize each of the fifteen elements on seeing its combining-n umber.

Now, if a class thus instructed b at the recitation@ bench, and one of them is requested form carbonio acid, he will walk quickly to the table in front, where the box is open, and place on one of the shelves a cube marked 6, and two marked S-oarbon, one, and oxygen, two. If requested to formlime, he will place on the shelf a cube marked 20, (oalcium,) and another marked 8, (oxygen,) these being the elements of lime. These cubes being all placed in contact, and the pupil being asked, What have we nowl answers, Carbonate of lime. f

Another pupil may then be asked to give the proximate analysis of carbonate of lime, and the cubes before him will indicate the answer and iix it in his memory: It is composedof one equivalent of carbonio acid, (22) and one ofliine, (28). Another may be requested to give the ultimate analysis, and by the same means he is furnished with the answer: Carbonio acid is composed of one atom of carbon and two of oxygen, and

the lime is composed of one atom of calcium and one of oxygen.

Thus it will be seen that by means of the chemical alphabet, definitions may be instantly formed, which it'would require many Words, and even sentences, to express in written language; and the definitionsk thus formed by the use of the cubes will be much more intelligible to thel pupil, and will make a more lasting impression upon his memory than any mere form of words, written or spoken, could possiblydo.

The intelligent educator will see at a glance, that in this chemical alphabet he has the means of at once larresting the attention of class, and converting what has hitherto been an irksome task into a pleasant recreation. The atomictheory, the characteristics of affinity, the law of multiple proportions,'the nomenclature, isomerisrn, 85o., may all be learned in half -the time required heretofore, and learned so as not likely ever to be forgotten.

Having thus fully described my invention, and the mode of carrying it into eiect,

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The method of teaching the rudiments of chemistry by means of movable material bodies, varying in size, and marked m'th numbers, so as to represent the relative weight of the ultimate particles oi' matter of different chemical substances, known as simple or elementary bodies, substantially as described.

2. A sen'es of movable material bodies, varying in size, and marked with numbers, so as to represent the 

